se for suspicion or not. In fact, she hinted that it was good to be
brave, but bad to be quarrelsome. Then as to my personal appearance, she
acknowledged that I was larger and handsomer than she, and that my
rough, shaggy coat was far from unbecoming; but when I laughed at her
finical cleanliness, and called her affected for not keeping her own
white fur as rough and muddy as mine, she reminded me that it was that
very neatness, so despised by me, which had procured her entrance into
Lily's drawing-room, while I, with all my good qualities, was never
allowed to come up stairs.

I had always thought it rather grand to bang about in a careless manner;
and if I knocked any thing down, I supposed it was the thing's fault. I
once swept down with my tail a whole trayful of crockery; and when I was
scolded for doing mischief, I thought it quite sufficient excuse to say
to myself, "I did not do it on purpose; what is the use of making such a
fuss?" But I now saw clearly that Pussy's care not to do any mischief at
all was both more agreeable to others and more advantageous to herself.

For instance, the gardener's wife turned me out in the cold while she
was washing the china, whereas she let Pussy walk about on the very
table among the cups and saucers, stepping so carefully with her soft
little paws that there was no danger of any breakage. I have seen her
walk along the edge of every shelf on the dresser, without disarranging
a single plate. Then, while I was despising Puss for catching mice, I
heard the gardener's wife giving her the highest praise for being an
excellent mouser; and to my surprise, I found out that it was the
regular work for which she was kept in the house.

So, as time went on, we learnt to understand each other better and
better, and our companionship was useful in teaching us to be less
narrow-minded in our estimation of each other and things in general. I
discovered that it was not necessary for every body to be exactly alike;
that cats and dogs, and perhaps also men and women, had a right each to
his own character; and that people must be mutually accommodating, every
body giving up a little, and no one expecting to make his own way the
rule for every body. And Pussy learnt herself, and taught me another
lesson, that every body is one's superior in something, so that any body
may improve by taking pattern by any body else; I mean, by looking for
and imitating their good qualities, instead of picking o